Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-05-11
= Serial Storg.
j E . g..
BY H. RIDER HAGGARD,
AUTHOR OF KING "soLoMoN's MINES,
''sHE," ETC, ETC.

AUTHOR OF KING "soLoMoN's MINES,
''sHE," ETC. ETC.
CHAPTER VII.
LOVES YOUNG DREAM.
After waiting few minutes jess said
''Good night and went straight to Bessie's
room. Her sister had undressed and was sit
ting on her bed wrapped in blue dressing
gown that snited her fair complexion ad-
mirably, and with a very Responding ex-
preston on her beautiful face. Bessie was
one of those people who are easily elated and
easily cast down.
jess came up to her and kissed her.
aWhat Is it, love?" she said Her sister
would never have OWNED the gnawing anx-
iety that was eating at her heart as she said it.
aOh, jess, I'm 80 glad that You have come,
~ do 50 want you 10 advfss me; THAT IS, to tell
me what you think, and she paused
aYou must tell me what it is all about first,
Bessie DEAR she said, sitting down opposite
to her in such position that her face was
shaded from the light Bessie tapped her
naked foot against the mating with which
the little room was carpeted. 1t was an ex-
ceedingly pretty foot.
aWeli, dear old girl, it is just this-Frank
Muller has been here to ask me to marry
him"
HOh," said jess, with sigh of relief, $50
that was allp She felt as though ton
weight had been lifted from her heart. She
had expected that bit of news for some time.
"He wanted me to marry him, and when
said would not he behaved like like
.1,o De- cfol Tocc
@Like brute" went on Bessie, with en-
phasis.
$50 you don't like Frank Muller?"
aLiks him! loashe the man. You don't
know how I loathe him; with his handsome,
bad face and his cruel eyes always loathed
him, and now hate him, too. But I will
tell You all about it," and she did, with many
feminine comments and interpretations.
jess sat quite still and waited till she had
finished.
aWell, DEAR" she said, at last, @you are not
going to marry him, and SO there is an end of
it. You can't detest the man more than I do.
I have watched him for years." she went on,
with rising anger, "and I tell you that Frank
Muller Is liar and a traitor That man
would betray his own father if he thought it
to his own interest to doso. He hates uncle
I am sure he does, although he pretends to
be so fond of him. am sure that he has
tried often and often to stir up the Beers
against him Old Hans Coetzee told me that
he denounced him to the Weld Cornet as an
'uitlander' and 'verdomde Engelsmann'
about two years before the annexation, and
tried to get him to persuade the Landdrost to
report him as law breaker to the Raad;
while all the time he was pretending to be so
friendly. Then in the Sikukuni war it was
Frank Muller who caused them to commander
uncles two best wagons and the spans. He
gave none himself, nothing but q couple
OF bags OF meal He Is wicked fellow
Bessie, and a dangerous fellow; but he has
more brains and more power about him than
any man in the Transvaal, and you will have
to be very careful, or he will do US all bad
turn"
aAh!n said Bessie; swell, he can't do much
now that the country is English"
u am not so sure Of that. am not so
sure that the country is going to stop
English. You laugh at me for reading the
home papers, but I see things there that
make me doubtful The other people are In
power now in England, and one does not
know what they may do; you heard what
uncle said tonight. They might give us up
to tho Beers. You must remember that we
far away people are only the counters with
which they play their game"
Nonsense, JESS" said Bessie Indignantly.
"Englishmen are not like that. When they
soy thing they stick to it."
"They used to, you mean" answered jess
with shrug, and got up from her chair to SO
to bed.
Bessie began to fdgct her white feet over
ore another.
"Stop bit, jess dear" size said. u want to
speak to you about something else"
Jess sat, or rather dropped, back into her
chair, and her pale face turned paler than
ever, but Bessie blushed rosy red and hest
tated.
ut is about Capt Mel" she said at length.
"Oh," answered jess with a little laugh, and
her voice sounded strange and cold in her
own ears. 1Has he been following Frank
Muller's example and proposing to you, tooF
"No-o,n said Bessie, "but"-and here she
rose, and, sitting on q stool by her elder Sis
ter's chair, rested her forehead against her
knee-"but I love him and believe that he
loves me. This morning he told me that /
was the prettiest woman he had seen at home
or abroad, and the sweetest, too; and do you
know" she said, looking up and giving
happy little laugh, 81 think he meant it, too"
''Are you joking, Bessie, or are you really
in earnesatp
aIn earnestl ah, but that am, and am
not ashamed to say it. l fell in love with
John Mel when he killed that cock ostrich.
He looked so strong and savage as he fought
with it. It is a fine thing to see'a man put
out all his strength. And then he is such
gentleman!-so different from the men we
see round here. Oh, yes, Ifell in love with
him. at once. and have got deeper and
deeper in love with him ever since. and If lie
does not marry me think that it will break
my heart. There, that's the truth, jess
DEAR" and sne dropped her golden head Oh to
her sisters knees, and she began to cry,
softly, at the thought.
And the sister sat there on the chair, her
hand hanging idly by her side, her white
face set and impassive as fhat of an Egyptian
sphinx, and the large eyes gazing far away
through the window, against which the rain
was beating-far away out into the night
and the storm. She heard the surging OF the
storm, she heard her sisters weeping, her
eyes perceived the dark square Of the window
through which they appeared to look, ,she'could
feel Bessie's head upon her knees-yes, she
could see and hear and feel, and yet it seemed
to her that she was dead. The lightning had
fallen on her soul as it fell on the pillar Of